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Texas Has One Of Highest Teen Birth Rates In The U.S.
Texas earns the dubious distinction of having one of the highest teenage birth rates in the U.S. and a child poverty rate that’s well above the national average, according to a new report released Tuesday.
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(File)
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12 Comments 
AUSTIN (July 27, 2010)—Texans has the third highest rate of teenage births in the country and a child poverty rate well above the U.S. average, according to the annual Kids Count report released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Only Mississippi and New Mexico have higher teen birth rates, the report says.
The annual report says that while the state’s teen birth rate has improved since, 2000, more than 54,000 babies were born to girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2007.
Overall, the study ranked Texas 34th for children's well being.
With an anticipated state shortfall of $18 billion, advocates for children and the poor are concerned that additional cuts to state services could exacerbate problems for the poor.
“Failure to invest in our kids has clear consequences,” said F. Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP).
“Too many cuts today pose harm to our children’s well-being and will ensure they will not be properly prepared to take advantage of prosperity when it returns. We will not have made the investment.”
Latest Comments
People are financially strapped? Too many illegal aliens having kids? We need to step up sex ed ( when the religious types won't let that happen...to the response that God is being taken out of "our" lives )? Too many people under the poverty line? Why do I get the feeling Most of these comments were made by supporters of Perry...you are saying yourselves that he sin't doing a good job...in fact this is a sanctuary state, with too many poor, awful schools, no sex ed and a an over zealous small percentage of people making poor choices for the masses. Yeah great Job by the current politicians. Bending to the will of the ignorant to garner votes instead of doing what would help. Instead of blaming Obama...maybe you should listen to yourself. It's right there in black and white...it's not working with the current policies put in place by the current governor and his cronies. And you said so yourselves!
What I see with this story is just raw numbers. If that is how they are ranking Texas then of course we are high on the list. We have more people! If they would publish the data in per/100,000 format we might have a better clue how we stack up. What it all boils down to is parents teaching their kids early and often about life. It takes parents, not a village. If you can't feed them don't breed them.
The real problem here is parents having to work 60 hours a week to support their families.
